Boy’s US$300,000 hobby: dad’s Ultraman card purchase for son receives backlash, described as ‘throwing money into a bottomless pit’

A father in China has spent almost 2 million yuan (US$300,000) indulging his son’s hobby of collecting trading cards of the superhero Ultraman, local media has reported.

The father, given the pseudonym Fan Lei in local media reports, admitted on Tuesday in an interview that he had spent the huge sum on his son’s addiction to Ultraman cards, the Economic View reported.

The Japanese fictional superhero character Ultraman has been a long-time favourite anime with Chinese children, with collecting Ultraman trading cards a popular hobby.

Ultraman trading cards come in packs of five, with prices ranging anywhere from 2 yuan (3 US cents) to more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,500). The rarer the cards the higher the asking price.

Buyers in the lower price range are generally hobbyists, while some who spend more than 100,000 yuan on cards are serious collectors. Those spending more than 1 million yuan (about US$150,000) on their collection are given the title of “king” among Chinese collectors.

Fan, a king of Ultraman card collector himself, showed local reporters part of the collection he had spent so much money on. The cards are all labelled with details including height, weight, backstory, and character’s capabilities and all are placed in a specific order.

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There was also an empty album waiting to be filled with the most recent round of cards bought for US$300,000, he said.

The son for whom Fan said the cards are for was not present during the interview.

Other Chinese parents who have spent large amounts trying to satisfy their children’s demands for the cards commented on the story and shared their own experiences.

While some defended their spending by arguing that developing a hobby is never cheap, a lot of people questioned whether it was appropriate for children to be lavished with such expensive gifts.

Others questioned if some parents were using their children as an excuse to further their own obsession with the trading cards.

One asked: “Am I the only one feeling that the person who is addicted to the collection is not his son, but the dad himself?”

One commenter said: “It’s like throwing money into a bottomless pit.”

Another said: “Is the dad really helping his son indulge in his hobby? Perhaps I’m not rich enough, I think such parenting is wrong.”